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sailing tips

To: swiftsolo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: sailing tips
From: BDally6107@xxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2005 22:03:40 EDT
 
Some  useful tips 
With the sailing season finally getting going in nearly  all parts of the US, 
Canada, and Europe, many of our sailors will be racing this  summer in mixed 
fleets (Portsmouth or otherwise).  The following is an attempt to shorten  the 
learning curve and get you going fastâfast.  When your Swift is being sailed 
well and  is properly set up, it should feel like a high quality sports car.  
When poorly set upâespecially in a blow,  a dogsled hitched to a pack of 
hungry hyenas.  Remember, the on-the-water adjustability  of the rig is one of 
the 
keys to allowing us to carry such a large sail  plan.  The auto sheeting 
system is  the other.  You do need to take  advantage of this adjustability.    
Let's start with setup in various conditions: 
In lighter  conditions you'll be looking for power (4 to 11 knots of breeze 
for most  of us).  After you pull your rig on  with primaries set at 24 and 
caps at 10 on the Loos gauge, adjust your lowers so  that the bottom of the 
mast 
is dead straight or slightly inverted.  After hoisting the sails, adjust the  
Cunningham so that the diagonal wrinkles just come out of the sailâno  
further.  Your vang should be pulled  on fairly hard.   At this point, the 
bottom of 
your mast  should have only a small amount of bend.  Once sailing, make sure 
that all of your telltales are breaking at the same timeâtop and bottom of 
both 
 sails. 
Stay forward going to weather.  You should be just barely aft of the shrouds 
and in really light air and  flat water, you may want to have your forward 
foot forward of the shrouds while  sitting in your harness (squatting on the 
gunwale when necessary).  When you get small gusts, don't  over-respond.  It's 
fine to let the  boats heel a bit initially and then bring it flat slowly. 
Otherwise, flat is  always fast except in really light air. 
After hoisting the kite, you'll have to decided  how high to sail.  If the 
wind is  above 8 knots the decision is easy.  Go as high as you can and trapeze 
(hike) hard from about halfway back  from the shrouds, depending on how big 
the waves are.  Below 8 knots, play the waves and try to  sense what angle is 
faster. Continue to move fore and aft to take advantage of  the waves.   As the 
wind increases to near 11 knots,  move further aft. 
As the wind  increases from 12 to 25 knots you'll want to makes changes in 
this order,  to de-power a bit.  The first thing is to lower yourself  right 
down on the trapeze.  This  provides some additional righting moment all the 
time 
but the real benefit is  the increased righting moment during gusts when a 
higher trapeze causes you to  loose most of your leverage as the boat heels.  
Second, pull the Cunningham on harder  and sail a bit further off the wind.  
This will significantly flatten the main and soften the leech.  Third, Move the 
jib track pins out one  place to the third hole.  
Pull the jib downhaul on a bit at the same time you go to  more Cunningham on 
the main.   This will flatten the jib by tensioning the luff and softening 
the leech.  Next, move far enough aft to keep  the majority of the waves out of 
the launcherâno further.  If you're still overpowered, let the  lowers off 
three full turns and the caps about Ââ.  This will significantly flatten the 
main 
 and soften the leech.  Finally,  raise the board about 6â.  This will  make 
the boat more forgiving in the gusts.  Finally, try to get strong enough that 
you can play the main to weather  without cleating it.   
I've said nothing about easing the vang for a  reason.  More Cunningham and 
looser  lowers will automatically do it for you.  I've also found that with 
this sequence of changes, you'll find that your  jib relativity remains correct 
right on up the wind range.   We seldom change the relativity now.  When the 
relativity is wrong, it's  usually an indication that lowers and Cunningham 
(and 
sometimes the vang) are  wrong.  The exception is really  light air. 
During the bear away, keep the boat flat or slightly  heeled to weather and 
move far aft before initiation.  No need to let the vang off except if  it's 
close to 25 knots.  Sail high  and trapeze (hike) hard downwind.  Try to stay 
about 2 feet forward of the transom, moving aft as waves  require to keep the 
bow out.  With  time, you'll find that the Swift is quite manageable even in 20 
to 25 knots of  breeze.  Above 25 knotsâleave that  to the really young guys 
or wear a helmet and downhill pads.   
Hopefully, this information will make your sailing experience much more  fun. 
 Good sailing and I hope you  find this useful. 
Bram
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